Like is a strong word
by Xirin
Summary: Sasuke hears that Hinata does not like him and that doesn't affect him at all.


** Like is a strong word**

_ Sasuke hears that Hinata does not like him and that is not affecting him at all._

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** A/N: This happens during the original Naruto when they are 12.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto's plot or characters or anything**

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It all began when Konoha 12 and their senseis met at the BBQ house after their usual team training. Shikamaru had complained about how everything was troublesome, Chōji was enthusiastically eating like he usually did, Kiba was playing with Akamaru, Shino observing the environment. Ino and Sakura were fawning over Sasuke in their usual way, Lee was shouting something about youth, Tenten hitting his head with her scrolls. Neji was looking almost as grumpy as Sasuke and Naruto were explaining how awesome training they had had earlier. Hinata was poking her fingers together and listening to his every word intently. Kakashi was reading his book, Kurenai scowled at him because of that, Asuma tried to calm her down and Gai was, of course, shouting with Lee.

"...and then I totally smashed Teme in the spar and now he is just a sore loser!" shouted Naruto at the end of his story.

"Hn. Dobe. Like you could ever beat me at anything" scoffed Sasuke in his usual indifferent style.

"Yeah, Naruto-baka! Sasuke-kun is so skilled!" announced Sakura watching Sasuke with hearts in her eyes. Which of course led to an angry staring contest with Ino.

"What a drag..." complained Shikamaru his teammate's behavior.

Naruto looked sulky for a moment but returned his happier self soon. "Why do all the girls like Teme so much?"

Surprisingly it was Shino, who answered eyes tightly on Hinata: "I don't believe all the girls like Sasuke-san like that." Hinata blushed.

Of course, Naruto didn't even notice he spoke. Young Aburame started sulking.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows looking like he was thinking about something very hard. Then he seemed to find it out: "Aha! Now I know! Hinata-chan would be a perfect girlfriend to Teme!"

All the Konoha 12 stared at him incredulously. Everyone else, of course, knew about Hinata's major crush on Naruto. It was rather obvious because of her blatant blushing, fainting, and stuttering around him.

"How did you come up with that, Naruto? The whole idea is absurd. Hinata-chan doesn't even like Sasuke!" Hinata's teammate Kiba shouted. Shino sulked some more because that was the thing he had just said a moment ago.

"WHAT? Well, I just thought that they are both weird and never talk and both are always training when I see them! A perfect pair it is."

Hinata had fainted during the word 'weird'. Neji looked like he wanted to kick Naruto's ass and others just thought it is better not to do anything and continued the discussion about team training.

After the meeting, Sasuke was walking back to his apartment kicking a small stone ahead of him at the same time. These boring moments that didn't bring him any closer to getting his revenge and made him think unsensible thoughts.

They are both weird and never talk and both are always training... She doesn't even like him... Why doesn't she like him? Sasuke had never been worried about what other people thought of him. Now, however, it disturbed him greatly why the Hyūga princess was different from the other girls.

"Hn. Whatever. I don't care", he thought in his typical way and continued strolling to his apartment.

That thought lasted like a day. The next day after team training (and escaping an overly enthusiastic Sakura) his feet just walked themselves to the training ground 8, where Team Eight trained. It, of course, didn't mean anything, he was Uchiha Sasuke after all. He could leisurely observe other teams if he wanted.

Hinata's team had already ended their training, but, as Naruto had explained, Hinata had stayed to get some alone training time.

He watched how she trained to the late-night before leaving. Purely due to scientific reasons, of course.

So he came back the next day. And next. And next. There was something calming to see someone thought to be weak growing stronger every day.

He didn't know when his behavior had turned stalking, but he had started to follow Hinata and bump into her intentionally everywhere.

He had noticed that she trained a lot, and while she wasn't the strongest ninja ever, the attitudes she was getting from her clansmen were much worse than they should have been. He noticed also that she liked to cook. A lot. She cooked to the Dobe a lot and the Dobe being an idiot never caught her intentions. It irked Sasuke to no end.

She was also blushing a lot around Naruto. What did she saw in him? The question that had started his obsession rose to his mind again. _Why. Doesn't. She. Like. Me?_

Sasuke honestly didn't know what he would do even if she suddenly declared her feelings to him. He didn't like her or anything. But if she did start to like him, she would be just like other girls and then he could continue his life like before.

But she was completely in love with Naruto. She didn't usually even notice if Sasuke walked past her. She never watched him when they had combined training. She didn't even notice his obvious stalking. Her affections were Naruto's and Naruto's alone.

During his stalking he had also started noticing other things in Konoha. One of them was that where was Hinata, there was Naruto. And what was really surprising, where was Naruto, there was usually Sakura too. And whenever those three were at the same place together, the whole situation ended up with an angry Sakura, a whining Naruto and a very broken-hearted Hinata.

Damn masochists.

So he started to feel bad for her. He really tried not to, but he was a human too. It annoyed him greatly. He was supposed to focus on his revenge and becoming stronger than Itachi, but here he was stalking and pitying a Hyūga girl who didn't even know he existed. _Or. Didn't. Like. Him._

Pathetic.

So, when he was once again on a random day following her to the town after training, he noticed Sakura and Naruto interacting like they usually did; Sakura with her fists and Naruto with his voice. After a short argument Sakura had ended up hitting him to the head, but unlike the normal day, Naruto had evaded which ended up her falling on top of him.

As much as Sakura claimed to hate Naruto, a 12-year-old girl falling on top of any boy would make her blush. So, Hinata got to watch a whole 30 seconds of blushing and awkwardness, before Sasuke surprised himself by dragging her to the side alley and covering her ears. He stood near her, her back against the wall of the alley.

"There are nothing you wish to see or hear", he whispered her so Naruto and Sakura wouldn't notice he was there.

Hinata watched him clearly a little scared.

"S-Sasuke-san..."

"Shhh..."

He listened intently as long as his teammate's voices had faded. Hinata seemed a little anxious about her situation and the loss of her personal space. Sasuke couldn't really blame her since he wouldn't have liked the situation either.

Sasuke turned his black eyes back to Hinata.

"Why do you like him so much?" he asked, trying to keep his voice as little annoyed as he could.

Hint felt like crying, but bravely kept tears away.

"H-He never gives up. I admire his attitude... I wish I could be like him", she told him.

"Hn. He only sees Sakura. Why do you keep trying when he clearly doesn't notice you?"

Hinata looked ashamed. "I-I was thinking t-that if I become stronger, then maybe he notices..."

Sasuke didn't really know what to say to that. His motivation to become had always been Itachi; first to surpass his awesome big brother, later to kill him. So he ended up grunting and walking away like he usually did when he didn't know how to handle a situation.

"Tch. Whatever. Do what you wish."

Hinata, however, looked at him, really looked, for the first time. Her eyes had been so intently on Naruto, that she hadn't noticed how similar were the feelings that Sasuke was going through compared to herself. She decided not to go after him right away, but for the first thing tomorrow she would visit him.

Sasuke scolded himself for caring about Hinata's feelings. What if she had seen Naruto and Sakura? Nothing changed after his meddling so why did he even bother?

Next morning he had just finished eating breakfast when he heard someone ringing his doorbell. Weird. Fangirls usually just try to go through windows and the Dobe never rings the bell... He opened the door only to his surprise, find Hinata there.

"I... I thought I would like to thank you for stopping me seeing something I didn't want to by making you lunch... A-And maybe help you train but I don't know if I can without being a burden..." she explained.

He watched her and let her in. It was the first time he had let a girl to his apartment, but, well, she was the first girl who wasn't a fan.

"Well, I just ate breakfast so we could try training and see if there is anything we could do together. I have never sparred against a Byakugan-user so we could maybe start with that?"

"I-If you think I am good enough.."

"Well, let us try."

He started dragging her to the training grounds.

It was brutally clear that her biggest problem was her confidence. She had been fighting before she could walk and it showed. There was a lot of potential, but no one who had enough patience to help her. Sasuke himself was a very different type of fighter, so he thought he could do only a little to help her. She needed guidance from someone her clan. So, they sparred and he told her his thoughts.

"Thank you, Sasuke. It has been nice to train with you."

"Hn."

"I have been much more friendly with Neji-niisan after the exams, I wonder if he would help me train", Hinata wondered.

They ended up his apartment once again and Hinata prepared some lunch. Sasuke would never admit it but he had dreamed about this since he first saw Hinata cook.

And it was totally worth waiting for. She had even made his favorite dish, and even if it wasn't as good as her mother had made it, it was much better than anyone else's.

He made a decision to let her come visit him as often as she wanted.

So the visits became first a weekly event, then they started to see more often until they ended up spending every single day together. She was still in love with Naruto, but him not answering her feelings was so much easier to accept when she had Sasuke by her side. She also had a lot less time to think about him; Sasuke kept her mind occupied with other matters. He had become a good friend and she really didn't know what would she do without his support.

Sasuke of course, would never admit that he liked her. That, of course, didn't stop him from becoming dependent on her regarding her cooking and presence.

They had kept their weird friendship strictly to themselves, maybe because Sasuke didn't want Hinata to be bullied by his fangirls or because her clan wouldn't have approved - they just never advertised it. They never agreed on anything about that, they just did it.

So it was a weird day when Team Eight arrived back to Konoha after a particularly long escort mission and Team Seven was by chance near the gate doing some after training bonding activities. Hinata was just about to announce she needed to go back to the compound to her teammates when Sasuke appeared in front of her.

"Hinata", he stated neutrally.

Both teams sweat-dropped. What did the last Uchiha want from Hinata?

"Sasuke", she greeted with her normal pleasant manner.

Then they all saw something no one thought they would see. Sasuke was smirking, but probably a little more gently than usual.

"Ar you hurt?" he asked bluntly.

"No, the mission was boring. Nothing happened. I still needed to scout so I'm pretty tired", she answered way too friendly in Sakura's opinion.

"I am hungry", Sasuke stated, which was his way of saying: "I was just going home to make some lunch, wanna come along?"

"I need to go to the compound, I promised father I would go straight there after my mission. But if I remember right they are preparing some tomato soup today for lunch so if you wish..?"

His eyes glinted when she mentioned tomatoes.

"What are we waiting for, then?"

He took her by hand and started dragging her to the Hyūga compound. Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai left and watched their backs incredulously.

"I told you they are a perfect pair!"

"Shut up, Naruto."


End file.
